Nik Wallenda poses the 2 in diameter giant tight-rope wire that will be installed for practice at the Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls on Thursday, May 10, 2012. Wallenda will try to cross the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope on June 15.(AP Photo/The Buffalo News, Harry Scull Jr.)

ABC is turning Nik Wallenda's attempted tightrope walk over Niagara Falls into a prime-time television event next month, devoting a full three hours to the daredevil's June 15 walk, the network said Friday.

Wallenda, 33, is a seventh-generation member of the famous daredevil family the Great Wallendas, also known as the Flying Wallendas, whose history as a traveling circus troupe dates to 1780.

"It's a return to some of the great events you've seen on television over the years," ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said. "I think back to my own childhood and Evel Knievel where literally the whole country would gather around the set and watch one of these extraordinary stunts."

That the event would grab three hours in prime time didn't surprise media expert Robert Thompson, who said the Wallenda legend together with the bygone tradition of daredevil attempts at conquering Niagara Falls are big draws - even if it may mean some soul-searching and macabre contingency planning at the network.

"They're planning a show where one of the preproduction activities is making sure everyone knows what happens in case this guy dies," said Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.

The thought of a fall is what will keep retired physical therapist Peter Swales from tuning in. He sees a kind of ghoulishness in those who will.

"They want him, I'm sure deep down, to make it, but if he doesn't, boy, they want to be able to see it," Swales said by phone from Springville, N.Y.

Swales is probably in the minority, said University at Buffalo pop culture expert David Schmid.

"It's the same reason everyone rubbernecks on the Thruway when there's a crash," the associate English professor said. "When we finally realize what the hold up is, we say, 'Oh, that's terrible,' and then what do we do when we drive by? We take a look."

But Schmid said the attraction to the Wallenda show goes beyond morbid curiosity. This is real "reality" television.

For its part, ABC will have a five- to 10-second delay in the live feed to give producers time to react if something goes wrong.

Wallenda said he's adamantly opposed to tethering himself to the 2-inch wire to remove the life-or-death element.